Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400

Recently, there have been so many smartphones coming out one after the other. And most of them are flagships with top of the line specs, and design and whatnot. Sure, that’s great and all but the only issue here is their price. These flagships mostly linger over $650 or so, which, frankly, is a little dent in most of our pockets. So, if you’ve been scouring the market for a fresh mid-ranger with something premium to offer, the Motorola Moto X4 is here…and it is what you’re looking for: a premium mid-ranger. For only $400, you get something pretty decent with software as close to stock Android as it can be! It’s2 also a kind of the Nexus that you are missing. Why? Check out Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400.

The Motorola Moto X4 is also known as Motorola Moto X4 Android One, but that’s too long of a name anyways. So, we’ll just stick to Moto X4. The Moto X4 is only available through Google’s Project Fi, because of the whole Android One thing, I guess. But there are reasons to get this phone, and we’ll take you through them in Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400.

Motorola Moto X4: Design

First up on Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400, let’s study the design. The Moto X4 is a quite good looking phone, with a very familiar design of metal-and-glass body. It’s not bezel-less or anything, but you can’t really expect it to be. There’s a camera bump on the back, but the circular bump blends quite well with the glass body. Sure, the surface is prone to finger smudges and such, but the look-n-feel of glass and metal is still premium. In addition, its got an IP68 Water Resistance, so, that’s an added bonus.

You have the fingerprint sensor in the front, but there are no physical buttons beside them. Instead you’ll have the on-screen navigation buttons, which I, personally, find quite unelegant, but it’s still cool. It features a USB-C port with a 3.5 mm headphone jack beside it. All the buttons are on the right while the SIM-tray + SD card slot is accessible from the top. Overall, the design looks like flagships of last year, which is pretty good, isn’t it?

Motorola Moto X4: Display

With the Moto X4, you don’t get the high-end bezel-less displays. Just like with other mid-rangers, you get a Full-HD display. So, it features a 5.2″ IPS LCD 1920 x 1080 panel with 424 PPI pixel density. The screen size with the resolution makes for a great display with bright and vibrant colors and components. Sure, its not anything ultra-wide or something, but even if you look closely at the screen, you won’t see any individual pixels on the screen. So, watching movies and stuff is fantastic on this one. I found its display better than some flagships that feature similar Full-HD design.

Motorola Moto X4: Camera

Next up on Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400, we’ll discuss the camera. But let me tell you straight away, this part is not good news. Sure, spec-wise it’s all great! You get a Dual-Camera setup; a 12 MP f/2.0 sensor with an 8 MP Wide-Angle f/2.2 sensor at the back and a 16 MP front camera. Now, it can also record 4K videos @ 30 fps and has features like Portrait mode, and all.

But, the camera app is a little too slow to load up. I’ve missed quite a few quick moments while trying to take pictures with it. It takes time to snap even a single photo, so, the continuous shot is all but out. And also, there’s quite some time in between processing shots. Also, the wide-angle camera feels a bit too wide for its own good. It might just be me, but it is what it is. Furthermore, notice that the aperture is low considering today’s standards, so, the picture quality in low-light is not par. However, besides the low-light issue, the other aspects are fixable with software upgrades, so, we’ll look forward to it.

Motorola Moto X4: Platform and OS

For a mid-ranger, the Moto X4 seems to pack all the right specs. It runs on an Octa-core 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 630 Soc supported by 3 GB RAM. Now, that’s pretty decent power for a mid-range phone. Day to day operations are blazing fast and gaming is also a breeze. Heavy games like Asphalt might take some time to load, but once it does, you can play without a hitch! Recording the 4K videos also went smoothly enough when I did it once.

For now, the Moto X4 runs on Android 7.1 Nougat, but there’s plans to upgrade it to Android 8.0 Oreo within this year. Also, with Android One, you’ll get a very clean android experience, second only to stock Android. With the Android One, there’s guarantee of two years of Software updates, and it’ll also be one of the first phones to receive the Android P update, whenever that becomes available. So, there are the perks of Android One, which is why it is as close to Nexus as you’ll get for the price.

Motorola Moto X4: Battery and Storage

Now on Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400, let’s talk about the battery. With the Moto X4, you can last easily through the day with a 3000 mAh battery. Also, it boasts 6 hours worth of battery life in a 15-min charge, which basically means its own Fast Charge feature. Another cherry on top!

It offers 32 GB internal storage, which is by no means too little, but since you have an expandable option with a microSD card up to 256 GB, you don’t have to worry a bit about running out of storage anytime soon.

Motorola Moto X4: Conclusion

Last but not the least on Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400, we go onto the conclusion. As the title suggests, it is already one of the best smartphones you can find under $400, $399 to be exact. The design is premium and sturdy with water resistance, the display is even close to some flagships, the performance is better than average and you have the Android One. The only drawback right now, would be the camera, but it should be fixed with soon-to-come software updates. And for all this, the price seems more than right. And now, Amazon is offering it for $329, as a Prime exclusive (locked screen ads from Amazon). Therefore, for now, and in a long time, it is the best smartphone under $400.

So, this was Motorola Moto X4 Review: Best Smartphone Under $400. How did you find it? Will you buy this mid-ranger or wait for another one to come around. Do let us know, and thank you for reading. Stick with us for more such information and news.

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